Method and system for providing energy services

ABSTRACT

The present document relates to a system for providing energy services in an energy grid using a cloud environment. The system comprises at least one control entity adapted to receive information from at least one of a plurality of energy grid elements and to operate the energy grid elements based on operational policies. One or more control interfaces are coupled with the energy grid elements. The control interfaces are adapted to transmit information provided by an energy grid element to a control entity and/or the control interfaces are adapted to receive information from the control entity to operate the energy grid element based on the information. The at least one control entity comprises a plurality of software modules which are hosted in the cloud environment, and the operational policies are stored in storage entities of the cloud environment to operate the energy grid elements according to the operational policies.

The present document relates to the field of managing energy grids. Inparticular, the present document relates to a system and method forproviding energy services based on a cloud environment infrastructure.

Due to the finite nature of fossil fuels and decreasing acceptance ofnuclear power, the generation of energy, respectively, the demands tothe energy grid fundamentally change. The change from fossil fuels andnuclear energy to renewable and CO2 neutral energy will result in aplethora of small and large, concentrated and decentralized solar, wind,hydro, geothermal etc. power sources to be connected to the energy grid.

Existing energy grids and their management are not designed to cope with

-   -   the geographical mismatch between power sources and consumers;    -   the dynamics of varying energy levels provided by renewable        sources;    -   the temporal mismatch between the consumers' demands and the        offers by renewable sources.

In addition, due to decentralized power sources, the efficiency of theprovision of energy can be dramatically increased if the energygenerated at a certain location is consumed close to said location inorder to avoid losses due to long-distance power transmission.

US Patent Application US 2010/0332373 A1 discloses a system and a methodfor participating in energy-related markets. A multidimensional energydecision system comprises a plurality of server systems, including atleast a statistics server and an interface adapted to receive and senddigital information from at least a client system. The multidimensionalenergy decision system is further adapted to optionally communicate witha digital exchange via a packet-based data network. The multidimensionalenergy decision system periodically optimizes operational parameters ofclient system for a specific time period and a specific energy assetfrom client system based on forecasted conditions.

Thus, there is a need to provide a method and system for orchestratingenergy grid elements comprised within the energy grid in a flexible andefficient way in order to guarantee a reliable supply of energy and meetthe demands of power suppliers and other players in the energy sector.

According to a first aspect, a system for providing energy services inan energy grid is disclosed. The system uses a cloud environmentcomprising a distributed server architecture for processingcomputational tasks and a plurality of storage entities for storinginformation. The cloud environment may comprise a plurality of servers,storage entities and other hardware components which are interconnectedby a communication network in order to exchange information. The cloudenvironment provides a platform for providing virtual services, e.g.virtual servers for processing computational tasks.

The system may comprise at least one control entity being adapted toreceive information from at least one of a plurality of energy gridelements and operate the energy grid elements based on operationalpolicies.

Furthermore, the system may comprise one or more control interfacesbeing coupled with the energy grid elements, the control interfacesbeing adapted to transmit information provided by an energy grid elementto the control entity and/or the control interfaces being adapted toreceive information from the control entity in order to operate theenergy grid element based on said information. The control interface mayprovide a generalized control interface describing the functionality ofthe underlying energy grid elements. In other words, the controlinterface provides a decoupling between device-specifichardware/parameter and generalized information provided to the controlentity.

The at least one control entity may comprise a plurality of softwaremodules which are hosted in said cloud environment. So, the controlentity is an aggregation of a plurality of pieces of software which canbe hosted on a single server or on a plurality of different, spatiallydistributed servers. The operational policies are stored in storageentities of said cloud environment, wherein the control entity is ableto access the operational policies in order to operate the energy gridelements according to said operational policies.

The proposed system is advantageous because an efficient operation of aplurality of energy grid elements comprised within the energy grid basedon operational policies is possible paired with scalability,reliability, availability, security and robustness provided by the cloudenvironment.

According to embodiments, the control interface provides a generalizedinterface adapted to describe the functionality of an energy gridelement based on a set of parameters. For example, a power generatingentity can be described by generalized parameters “peak power”, “averagepower”, “minimum power”, “efficiency”, “location” etc. By means of saidset of parameter, the control entity is able to assess the energy gridelement and use the energy grid element according to operationalrequirements.

According to embodiments, the energy grid elements may be groupedaccording to energy grid element types and the set of parameters ischosen according to said energy grid element type in order tocharacterize specific properties of said type of energy grid elements.For example, the types “power generators”, “power consumer”, “energystorage” etc. may be defined and the set of parameter is chosen suchthat the properties of the respective type of energy grid element aredescribed in a generalized way.

According to embodiments, the control entity may be adapted to receiveproperties and/or status information of the energy grid elements inorder to orchestrate the energy grid elements according to one or moreoperational properties. For example, there is a real-time monitoring ofoperational parameters, e.g. load of an energy storage, actuallygenerated power of a power generator etc. In addition, the controlentity may receive information from different consumers regarding theirpresent demand of the energy. Based on the actual supply and demand ofenergy, the control entity may distribute the energy such that therequirements laid down in the operational policies (e.g. receive energyat lowest costs, provide energy at prices above a certain thresholdetc.) are fulfilled. According to embodiments, the cloud environment mayprovide a user interface, the user interface enabling a user to define auser-related operational policy in order to define the usage ofresources of the energy grid in a customized way. For example, the usermay store an application on a computing device, said applicationproviding a graphical user interface for entering one or moreuser-specific parameters, said parameters defining a user-relatedoperational policy for controlling resources of the energy grid. Inaddition, the cloud may host user related applications which are adaptedto process user-defined commercial models or use cases based on theprovided operational properties.

According to embodiments, the settings provided via the user interfacemay be stored in user-related storage areas of the cloud environment.Similarly, applications adapted to process user-defined commercialmodels or use cases may be stored in said user-related storage areas.So, a certain user is able to deposit a set of rules (operationalpolicies) in the cloud environment in order to enable the control entityto orchestrate the energy grid elements according to said rules.

According to embodiments, the operational policies may include rules forcontrolling the energy input in or energy output out of one or moreenergy grid elements. For example, the owner of a battery pack (energygrid element of type “energy storage”) may provide an operational policydefining that energy is stored in the battery pack when energy costs arelower than a first threshold and energy is provided from the batterypack to a consumer when energy costs are above a second threshold.Thereby, the system is able to fulfil user requirements depending oncertain parameter derived from the energy grid or parameters of playerswithin the energy grid.

According to embodiments, the control entity may be adapted todynamically aggregate multiple energy grid elements in order to build atleast one virtual energy sub-grid within the energy grid. For example,an energy supplier may be associated with a plurality of energy gridelements and may group said energy grid elements into one or morevirtual energy sub-grids. Said virtual energy sub-grids may beindependent from each other and may be controlled separately, i.e. thevirtual energy sub-grids are isolated with respect to control purposesbut included in one and the same energy grid.

According to embodiments, the control entity and the energy gridelements may be coupled via a communication network connection,specifically a virtual private network (VPN) connection. For example,the control entity is adapted to include energy grid elements of avirtual energy sub-grid in a communication network and enable acommunication of said energy grid elements via said communicationnetwork by choosing the respective settings. For example, the controlentity is adapted to configure a VPN-connection between the energy gridelements in order to enable a secure communication between the energygrid elements of a virtual energy sub-grid.

According to embodiments, the cloud environment may be adapted toprovide one or more virtual power plant applications (VPP) in order tocontrol at least one virtual energy sub-grid. So, each virtual energysub-grid may be associated with a certain VPP. The VPP may be anapplication or a set of multiple applications which are also hosted inthe cloud environment for executing said applications.

According to embodiments, the control entity may be coupled with a cloudenvironment control entity for exchange of information. Said cloudenvironment control entity may be, for example, a software-definednetwork (SDN) controller being adapted to control network operationsand/or scheduling/execution of processes within a cloud environment. Bymeans of coupling the control entity and the cloud environment controlentity it is possible to increase the cost-efficiency of the cloudenvironment because the processes are scheduled at servers which can besupplied with lowest energy costs. On the other hand, the control entitycan be aware of processes to be scheduled and try to effectively useavailable energy resources at locations at which processes are actuallyexecuted in the cloud environment.

According to embodiments, the distribution of computational tasks withinthe cloud environment may be controlled based on information provided bythe control entity. By upper-mentioned exchange of information betweenthe control entity and the cloud environment control entity, thecomputational tasks may be scheduled within the cloud environment onservers which are close to energy grid elements providing low-costenergy. Thereby, the energy costs of the cloud environment aresignificantly decreased.

According to embodiments, the control entity may be adapted todynamically add an energy grid element to a virtual energy sub-gridand/or remove an energy grid element from a virtual energy sub-grid. Thecontrol entity comprises means for including a new energy grid elementinto an existing virtual energy sub-grid by requesting parameters of theenergy grid element, integrating the energy grid element into thevirtual energy sub-grid according to said parameters and realize acommunication between the energy grid element and the control entitymanaging the virtual energy sub-grid. Preferably, the control entity maybe adapted to select a certain virtual energy sub-grid out of aplurality of virtual energy sub-grids based on the requested set ofparameters in order to integrate the energy grid element into a virtualenergy sub-grid which matches to the properties of said energy gridelement.

According to embodiments, the control entity may comprise means fordynamically including an energy grid element into the communicationnetwork in order to enable a communication between the energy gridelement and the control entity. Preferably, the control entity may beadapted to include the energy grid element into VPN-network of therespective virtual energy sub-grid in order to enable a reliable andsecure communication between the energy grid element and the controlentity.

According to a further aspect, a method for providing energy services inan energy grid using a cloud environment comprising a distributed serverarchitecture for processing computational tasks and a plurality ofstorage entities for storing information is disclosed. The energy gridcomprises a plurality of energy grid elements, the energy grid elementsbeing coupled with a control entity by means of one or more controlinterfaces. The method comprises the steps of:

-   -   instantiating at least one control entity comprising a plurality        of software modules in said cloud environment by hosting the        software modules on the distributed server architecture;    -   storing operational policies in storage entities of said cloud        environment; and    -   exchanging information between a control entity and energy grid        elements via the one or more control interfaces in order to        operate the energy grid elements according to the stored        operational policies.

It will be further understood that the term “energy grid element”, whenused in this specification, specifies any element within the energy gridwhich is used for supplying, transferring or storing energy,specifically electrical energy. Energy grid elements may be, forexample, power generators, e.g. wind power plants, photovoltaic systems,fossil fuel power plants, power consumers, e.g. factories, E-cars orpower storing facilities, e.g. battery packs or pumped storage powerplants.

It will be further understood that the term “cloud environment”, whenused in this specification, specifies a computing environment comprisinga distributed server architecture comprising a plurality of servers.Said servers may be spatially distributed (regional or national). Inaddition, a cloud environment may comprise multiple storage entities forstoring information.

It should be noted that the methods and systems including its preferredembodiments as outlined in the present patent application may be usedstand-alone or in combination with the other methods and systemsdisclosed in this document. Furthermore, all aspects of the methods andsystems outlined in the present patent application may be arbitrarilycombined. In particular, the features of the claims may be combined withone another in an arbitrary manner. Further, if not explicitly indicatedotherwise, embodiments of the invention can be freely combined with eachother.

The invention is explained below in an exemplary manner with referenceto the accompanying drawings, wherein

FIG. 1 illustrates an example schematic representation of an energy gridcomprising a plurality of energy grid entities;

FIG. 2 illustrates an example schematic representation of system forproviding energy services using cloud architecture;

FIG. 3 illustrates an example schematic representation of system forproviding energy services using cloud architecture being coupled with asoftware-defined network controller;

FIG. 4 illustrates an example schematic block diagram of an controlentity being adapted to control energy services within an energy grid;and

FIG. 5 illustrates an example schematic flowchart for dynamicallyincluding/removing a virtual energy sub-grid.

The integration and control of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) intocommunication technology (ICT) is an important demand for future energyarchitectures. Current power systems are not enough utilized ininteraction of their components like DER. One objective of this documentis the aggregation and integration of DER into Virtual Power Plants(VPP) and controlling them with Software Defined Networking (SDN).

This document describes the convergence between Software DefinedNetworking (SDN) and Virtual Power Plant (VPP) in which the DistributedEnergy Resources (DER) are aggregated. Hereby, a link betweentelecommunication technologies (ICT) and the smart power grid isgenerated and control can be embodied by the SDN Controller. Thus, it isnot necessary to develop an extra control-platform. No extra developedcontrol platform is needed. This function is adopted through the linkbetween VPP and the SDN controller. The OpenFlow approach allowstransporting any type of common datastream from the SDN side and theVPP/DER side through the network.

Aggregation and control of DERs is an attractive research topic. The SDNtechnology providing scalable and efficient networks may constitute acommunication platform for controlling DERs comprising networked IECsand IDEs connected via Ethernet. Network resources supporting DERcommunication may be allocated on-demand when DER's (IEDs) join or leavea VPP dynamically. A newly joined DER may be dispatched to the virtualnetwork of the suitable VPP. The network management complexity can behandled by software services based on SDN components (Apps).

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates an energy grid 110 comprising aplurality of energy grid elements 150. The energy grid 110 may comprisea plurality of electric power lines. The electric power lines areadapted to transmit electric power between energy grid elements 150which may generate electric power and energy grid elements 150 which mayconsume electric power. According to the schematic diagram of FIG. 1,the upper energy grid elements 150 are generating electric power. Suchelectric power generating energy grid elements 150 may be, for example,power plants (nuclear power plants, power plants using fossil fuels) orregenerative energy sources, e.g. photovoltaic-plants, wind powerplants, geothermal power plants, combined heat and power units etc.Energy grid elements 150 which are consuming electric energy(illustrated by the lower energy grid elements 150 in FIG. 1) may be,for example, factories, households, battery packs, electric cars, orpumped-storage power plants. At least a part of said energy gridelements 150 may be operated by one or more energy suppliers whichgenerate power by means of the electric power generating energy gridelements 150 and provide said generated energy to energy consumingenergy grid elements 150. In order to control the energy grid elements150, specifically the amount of energy generated by the energy gridelements 150 according to the energy demand of the energy consumingenergy grid elements 150, a control unit 115 may be provided. Saidcontrol unit 115 may be included in a central control station, mayreceive information from the energy grid elements 150 and providecontrol information to the energy grid elements 150 in order to controlthe generation of energy according to present and/or expected energydemand.

Referring again to FIG. 1, this figure sketches a SDN controllerarchitecture comprising network oriented services (southboundinterfaces) such as topology and route computation and DER/VPP specificservice components (northbound interfaces) such as real-time monitoringand aggregation control. The RESTful northbound interface provides aprogramming language independent service (application) interface to apotential VPP control-center. The physical connection from the networkelement (e.g. a switch) to the controller may convey the OSPF protocoland the IEC 61850 protocol. The OSPF protocol supported by an OSPFclient at the network element provides mainly modification operations ofthe forwarding tables. The IEC 61850 protocols supported by a 61850compliant client at the IED provide 61850 specific configuration (SCL:substation configuration language) and operations towards I/O e.g.relay.

FIG. 2 shows an example embodiment of a system 100 for providing energyservices within an energy grid 110 using a cloud environment 120. Thecloud environment 120 comprises a plurality of servers 122 which may bespatially distributed. In other words, the cloud environment 120comprises a distributed server architecture. In addition, the cloudenvironment 120 may comprise a plurality of storage entities 124 forstoring information or data within the cloud environment 120.

The system 100 further comprises one or more control entities 130. Acontrol entity 130 is a software-based control unit comprising aplurality of software modules. Said control entity 130 may be in thefollowing referred to as software-defined Energy Network (SDEN)controller. The control entities 130 may be included in a softwaredefined energy networking layer. Each control entity 130 may be adaptedto control a plurality of energy grid elements 150 included in theenergy grid 110. As already mentioned before, the energy grid elements150 may be energy generating/providing elements, energy consumingelements or even energy elements 150 which can in a first period of timereceive energy, store the energy and provide said energy in a secondperiod of time (e.g. pumped-storage power plants, battery packs etc.).The energy grid elements 150 may be coupled with the energy grid 110 inorder to provide electric energy to or receive electric energy fromother elements included in the energy grid 110.

Said energy grid elements 150 may be associated with one or more energygrid users (user A, user B, . . . user N). For example, a first energygrid user may operate photovoltaic modules at a first geographiclocation, a second energy grid user may operate a wind power plant at asecond geographic location and third energy grid user is operatingbiogas plant at a third geographic location.

The energy grid elements 150 may be grouped into energy grid elementtypes based on their specific behavior. For example, energy gridelements 150 may be grouped into the energy grid element types “energystorage”, “energy generator”, “energy consumer” etc.

In order to be able to control the energy grid elements 150 by means ofthe control entity 130, at least one control interface 140 is provided.The control interface may be included in a virtualization layer, saidvirtualization layer providing a generalized interface between theenergy grid elements 150 and the control entity 130. By means of thecontrol interface 140, functionalities of the energy grid elements 150may be abstracted, i.e. the functionality of an energy grid element 150is defined independent of the energy grid element hardware and itsspecific properties. For example, the energy grid element type “energystorage” may be described by generalized control interface parameters“capacity”, “minimum and maximum usable energy content”, “minimum andmaximum loading capacity”, “state of charge”, “level of efficiency”,“location” etc.

The virtualization layer may be formed by a plurality of controlinterfaces 140 wherein each control interface 140 is associated with acertain energy grid element 150. In other words, one or more energy gridelements 150 (depending on their spatial distribution) may be coupledwith the control entity 130 by means of a control interface 140. Thecontrol interface 140 may provide means for exchanging informationbetween the control entity 130 and the energy grid elements 150. Forexample, during an initialization routine, the control interface 140 mayprovide basic parameters of the respective energy grid element 150towards the control entity 130 in order to provide time-invariantinformation to the control entity 130 (type of energy grid element,capacity, location, efficiency etc.). During the operation of the energygrid element 150, further information (specifically time-variantinformation) may be provided to the control entity 130 (e.g. actuallygenerated electric power, state of charge etc.). Based on said receivedinformation, the control entity 130 may be adapted to control the energygrid elements 150 based on operational policies in order to achieve acertain objective. In addition, the control entity 130 may controlswitching elements included in the energy grid 110 in order to achieve adesired routing of energy from energy generating energy grid elements150 to energy consuming energy grid elements 150.

As already mentioned above, the control entity 130 is formed by aplurality of software modules which are hosted on one or more servers122 of the cloud environment 120. Specifically, the control entity 130may be implemented by one or more virtual servers. Due to theimplementation in the cloud environment 120, the control entity 130 isscalable depending on the number of energy grid elements 150 to becontrolled. In other words, due to the software-based implementation ofthe control entity 150 and the ability to distribute the computationaltasks of the control entity 130 onto a plurality of servers 122, thecontrol entity 130 is scalable on demand.

Each user of energy services provided by the system 100 may intend toachieve certain objectives. For example, the owner of a photovoltaicsystem may intend to achieve the best price for the generated electricpower. However, the owner of an electric car may intend to receiveelectric energy with the lowest price in a certain period of time. Inorder to be able to meet said requirements, the users may be able toimplement certain operational policies 160, said operational policies160 indicating rules for operating one or more energy grid elements 150.

In order to create and administrate said operational policies 160, theusers may be able to use applications (App). Said Apps may triggerprocesses within the cloud environment 120 in order to meet theoperational policies 160. For example, said Apps may reflect certainuser-specific business models, certain user-specific scenarios and/orcertain user-specific action patterns thereby enabling the users to usethe energy resources in a user-friendly way, for example with agraphical user interface. Said Apps may provide means for checking theuser authorization, means for accounting costs and revenues and/or mayprovide preconfigured functional packages or functional packages whichare tailored for the specific use case.

The control entity 130 may be adapted to manage all energy grid elements150. For example, the control entity 130 may be coupled with a database,said database including information of the energy grid elements 150included in the energy grid 110. For example, the database includesinformation regarding the actually active/passive energy grid elements150, their operating parameters, the location of the respective energygrid element 150 and information regarding the integration of therespective energy grid element 150 into the energy grid (i.e., detailsregarding the coupling of the energy grid element 150 with the energygrid 110).

The control entity 130 may be further adapted to build virtual energysub-grids within the energy grid 110. Said virtual energy sub-grids maycomprise subset of energy grid elements 150 included within the energygrid 110. For example, a first group of energy grid elements 150 may beincluded in a first virtual energy sub-grid and a second distinct groupof energy grid elements 150 may be included in a second virtual energysub-grid. Thereby, it is possible, that a power supplier may groupenergy grid elements 150. Said group may be administrated by a softwareapplication, said software application in the following referred to asvirtual power plant (VPP). Based on the cloud environment 120, it ispossible to operate multiple virtual energy sub-grids in parallel,wherein each virtual energy sub-grid is operated by a virtual powerplant. Said multiple virtual energy sub-grids are independent andseparated from each other but driven on the same hardware platform,namely the hardware of the cloud environment 120.

In order to be able to exchange information between the control entity130 and the energy grid elements 150, the control entity 130 and thecontrol interfaces 140 associated with the energy grid elements 150 arecoupled via a communication link. The communication link may be realizedby a common communication network connection provided by atelecommunication provider. For example, the communication link may be aTCP/IP communication link or an Ethernet link (e.g. for providing atime-efficient transfer of high frequency monitoring samples). Theenergy grid elements 150 may be coupled with the control interface 140via standardized protocols, e.g. Open Flow-protocol, IEC61850-protocol,Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) or NETCONF protocol. Alsoother standardized protocols may be possible.

Based on the current information received from the energy grid elements150 (time-dependent generated electric power, state of charge etc.) andthe operational policies 160 implemented by one or more users, thecontrol entity 130 is able to orchestrate the energy grid elements 150according to the operational policies. In other words, based on thecloud environment 120 and a wide-area (regional, national,international) generalized access to the energy grid entities (based onthe generalized interface provided by the virtualization layer includingthe control interface 140) a flexible, real-time orchestration of energygrid resources base on operational policies is possible.

FIG. 3 shows a specific embodiment of the system 100 according to FIG.2. As already mentioned before, the system 100 is using a cloudinfrastructure and a communication network infrastructure fororchestrating the energy grid resources. This is in analogy with thesoftware defined networking (SDN) approach intending a decoupling ofnetwork control from hardware by outsourcing the network control tasksto a software application called SDN controller (in general cloudenvironment control entity). The left portion of FIG. 3 shows an examplecloud-based SDN-architecture (IT-domain) next to the cloud-based system100 for orchestrating an energy grid 110 (energy domain). The energygrid users in the energy domain correspond to the telecom users in theIT-domain. The virtualization layer in the energy domain corresponds tothe Network Function Virtualization (NFV) layer in the IT-domain.Finally, the software defined Energy Networking layer in the energydomain corresponds to the SDN-layer in the IT-domain. Due to the usageof the same hardware resources for processing the Software-DefinedNetworking tasks (network control tasks) and the Software-Defined EnergyNetworking tasks (energy network control tasks) it might be advantageousto share information between the control entity 130 (implementing theSoftware-Defined Energy Networking functionality) and the SDN controllerin order to lower the energy costs caused by software defined networkingprocesses and in order to achieve an effective usage of energy resourcesof the energy grid 110. In other words, the SDN controller and thecontrol entity 130 may share information regarding the cloud environmentusage, respectively the energy resources provided in the energy grid inorder to improve the usage of regionally available energy and/or inorder to supply the cloud environment infrastructure with low-costelectric energy.

The SDN controller and the control entity 130 may be coupled via a datalink 170 in order to be able to exchange upper-mentioned information.Preferably, also at least some servers 122 included in the cloudenvironment are registered at the control entity 130 as energy gridelements 150. Thereby, the actual energy consumption of the servers 122is monitored by the control entity 130 and taken into account forfulfilling operational policies 160. Due to sharing information betweenthe SDN controller and the control entity 130, the SDN controller isable to distribute computational tasks within the cloud environment 120according to the energy resources available in the energy grid (e.g.host certain applications on a server located in a region where low-costenergy is available). On the other hand, the control entity 130 of theenergy domain is able to use information of the SDN controller in orderto consider the electric energy consumption of the cloud environment forfulfilling operational policies of the energy grid users.

FIG. 4 shows an example embodiment of a control entity 130 being adaptedto control energy resources provided in an energy grid 110. Preferably,the control entity 130 integrates communication network and energy gridfunctions in order to be able to manage the data communication betweenthe energy grid elements 150 and the control entity 130 as well asenergy functionality for fulfilling the energy specific operationalpolicies. The control entity 130 comprises a plurality of softwaremodules which can be hosted on one or multiple different servers 122 ofthe cloud environment 120. For example, the control entity may comprisea real-time monitoring block being adapted to monitor the demand orprovision of energy by the energy grid elements 150. In addition, thecontrol entity may comprise a data transmission block being configuredto realize and maintain the data transmission between the energy gridelements 150 and the control entity 130. Furthermore, a virtual networkcontrol block may be provided which is lo adapted to manage virtualenergy grid networks comprising a plurality of energy grid elements 150.An aggregation control block of the control entity 130 may be adapted toform virtual energy grid networks by aggregating multiple energy gridelements 150. Furthermore, the control entity 130 may comprise somemanaging blocks, for example a topology managing block, a statusmanaging block and switch managing block. The topology managing blockmay be adapted to manage topologies of several virtual energy gridnetworks, e.g. assign new energy grid elements 150 to existing virtualenergy grid networks. The status manager block may monitor the status ofenergy grid elements 150 in order to provide actual status informationof energy grid elements 150.

In addition, the control entity may comprise several blocks for handlingIT-network purposes, for example, a topology link discovery block, aconfiguration block, and analytics block and a route computation block.Said blocks may handle the integration of the energy grid elements 150into the IT-network, for example realize network connections,specifically VPN-network connections between the control entity 130 andthe energy grid elements 150.

Furthermore, the control entity 130 may comprise a plurality ofinterfaces for exchanging information between the energy grid elements150 and the control entity 130, respectively, between the control entity130 and a virtual power plant (VPP). The coupling towards the energygrid elements 150 may be realized by an OpenFlow-protocol, an IEC 61850protocol, an SNMP-protocol or NETCONF-protocol. The OpenFlow protocolsupported by a OpenFlow client at the energy grid element 150 providesmainly modification operations of the forwarding tables. The IEC 61850protocols supported by a 61850 client at the energy grid element 150provide IEC 61850 specific configuration (SCL: substation configurationlanguage) and operations towards I/O e.g. relay.

The control entity 130 may further comprise an interface for exchanginginformation with the virtual power plant (VPP). The said virtual powerplant may be also formed by a plurality of software applications whichare hosted in the cloud environment 120. The coupling between thecontrol entity 130 and the virtual power plant may be realized by aprogramming language independent interface, for example a RESTful(Representational State Transfer) interface.

So, summing up, FIG. 4 sketches a SDN controller architecture comprisingnetwork oriented services (southbound interfaces) such as topology androute computation and energy grid element/VPP specific servicecomponents (northbound interfaces) such as real-time monitoring andaggregation control. The RESTful northbound interface provides aprogramming language independent service (application) interface to apotential VPP control-center. The VPP may be an aggregation ofcloud-based smart energy apps.

In the following, a method how a DER may dynamically join or leave theVPP network without reconfiguring network elements based on the SDNapproach is disclosed. Network elements and IEDs which belong to a DERrequire an initial registration to the controller. If a new DER shouldbe attached to the existing VPP, unknown packets will arrive at thenetwork elements of the VPP. According to the OpenFlow approach, thefirst unknown packet will be redirected to the controller. The new DERmay be treated by the controller as a new VPP entity. 61850 semanticsfor both, services and data models will be extracted and conveyed by theIEC 61850 protocol and support the integration into the VPP.

The 61850 client located at the IED may extract object definitions fromthe device using network connectivity using a standard messageinterface.

Moreover the aggregation control component may be triggeredautomatically performing integration of a newly joined DER towards theRESTful northbound interface of the controller. The new DER may alsocarry new network elements and IEDs into the VPP network, which need toregister to the controller where the network topology discovery servicewill update the current VPP network topology towards the VPP controlcenter. Furthermore, VPP aggregation constraints such as weatherconditions resulting in modified energy production may trigger therelocation of the affected DER to a different VPP which may be supportedby different network slices. This DER relocation process is again adynamic aggregation of the corresponding network into a different SDNsupported VPP.

FIG. 5 illustrates a method 200 how an energy grid element 150 candynamically join or leave a virtual energy grid network, respectively, avirtual power plant (VPP). An energy grid element 150 may comprise oneor more network entities and/or integrated electronic devices (IEDs)which require an initial registration to the control entity 130. If anew energy grid element 150 should be attached to the existing VPPunknown packets will arrive at the control entity 130, respectively, thenetwork elements of the VPP.

If an unknown packet arrives at the control entity 130 (S210),respectively, the network elements of the VPP, a join procedure may beinitiated. According to the OpenFlow approach the first unknown packetwill be redirected to the control entity 130. The new energy gridelement 150 can be treated by the control entity 130 as a new VPPentity.

In order to join an existing VPP, relevant parameters of the energy gridelement 150 may be identified (S220). For example, the control entity130 may place a request for providing a set of parameters which arenecessary to define the type of energy grid element, the current state,the location etc. 61850 semantics for both, services and data modelswill be extracted and conveyed by the IEC 61850 protocol and support theintegration into the VPP. The 61850 client located at the new energygrid element 150 can extract object definitions from the device usingnetwork connectivity using a standard message interface. The 61850protocol is based on TCP/IP but can also run on Ethernet directly forefficient transfer of high frequency monitoring samples. 61850-x-xprotocol includes 61850-7-410 and 61850-7-420 etc.

Moreover, the new energy grid element 150 may be integrated into anexisting VPP (S230). In other words, the new energy grid element 150 maybe grouped with other energy grid elements 150 in order to form avirtual energy sub-grid controlled by a VPP. The aggregation controlblock of the control entity 130 may be triggered automaticallyperforming the integration of the newly joined energy grid element 150towards the RESTful interface of the control entity 130.

In addition, the network connectivity between the new energy gridelement 150 and other components of the virtual energy sub-grid has tobe realized (S240). The new energy grid element 150 may also carry newnetwork elements and IEDs into the virtual energy sub-grid, respectivelythe VPP network which need to register to the control entity 130 wherethe network topology discovery service will update the current VPPnetwork topology towards the VPP control center.

Similarly, the situation may arise when VPP aggregation constraints(e.g. weather conditions, changing energy production costs etc.) mayrequire a relocation of an energy grid element 150 from a first virtualenergy sub-grid to a second virtual energy sub-grid. If a relocationtrigger is received (S250), the energy grid element 150 is deregistered(S260), removed from the VPP (S270) and the communication networkconnectivity is removed (S280). Afterwards, the leaving energy gridelement 150 is handled as a new energy grid element 150 as describedabove for registering at a new VPP. This energy grid element 150relocation process is again a dynamic aggregation of the correspondingnetwork into a different VPP supported in the cloud environment 120.

Summing up, a system and method for providing energy services in a cloudenvironment has been disclosed. The proposed system/method isadvantageous because a plurality of energy grid elements with differentsizes, different locations and different energy specific properties canbe orchestrated in an effective way.

It has been proposed to implement a wide area (regions, nation-wide)generalized access to all energy grid elements (power plants, energystorage systems, renewable sources, consumers, e-cars, etc.) by means of“Energy Grid Functions Virtualization” applying e.g. IEC61850 protocolbased data models and solutions. (This is in analogy to the NFV (networkfunction virtualization) approach in ICT (information and communicationtechnology) networks, removing hardware dependency by virtualization andgeneralization).

Further, an intelligent control and management instance for the energygrid “Software Defined Energy Networking (SDEN)” will be used to provideflexible, real-time orchestration of energy grid resources to implementthe various business models. A generalized API will be offered tovarious energy grid networking applications (e.g. load balancing, peakshaving, capacity trading, energy brokerage, emergency operation, etc.)thus forming an “Energy Cloud”. (This is in analogy to the SDN approachin ICT networks for orchestrating ICT network resources). ICT cloudsolutions, in particular “Carrier Clouds”, can be exploited to implementthe telecommunication infrastructure for the Energy Cloud to benefitfrom proven elasticity, scalability and efficiency features on the onehand, and implement specific reliability, availability, security androbustness features exploiting the basics of Carrier Clouds.

With this Cloud-based architecture, the SDN (Software Defined Network)part provides computing, storage and media resources to the users on theICT side, and the SDEN part provides cost and CO2 efficient energy tothe players on the energy grid side. Since the related services andapplications can use an equivalent or even identical cloud platform, weadditionally enable novel approaches for a joint operation andoptimization of both ICT and energy networks. Thus, we could providecost and CO2 efficient energy also to ICT consumers (e.g. to ICT networkresources like routers, distributed network equipment or largecentralized data centers) wherever and whenever they need it, and thuscope with their dynamic demands.

Conversely, the ICT network resources/energy consumers become aware ofthe energy availability offerings by the energy grid side and could useselectively those resources offering the most cost efficient energy(e.g. by directing the traffic flows following efficient routes, or bytransferring processes and data to dedicated data centers depending onthe local availability of cost efficient energy), and thus cope with thespatial and temporal availability of energy sources.

Furthermore, aggregation and control of energy grid elements is anattractive research topic. The SDN technology providing scalable andefficient networks constitute a communication platform for controllingenergy grid elements comprising networked IEDs connected viacommunication network (e.g. Ethernet).

Network resources supporting energy grid elements communication can beallocated on-demand when energy grid elements (set of IEDs) join orleave a VPP dynamically. IEDs can be seen as a set of energy gridfunctions. A newly joined energy grid element can be dispatched to thevirtual network of the suitable VPP. The network management complexitycan be handled by software services based on SDN components (Apps). Inthis approach the SDN controller integrates communication network andthe energy grid functions.

It should be noted that the description and drawings merely illustratethe principles of the proposed methods and systems. It will thus beappreciated that those skilled in the art will be able to devise variousarrangements that, although not explicitly described or shown herein,embody the principles of the invention and are included within itsspirit and scope. Furthermore, all examples recited herein areprincipally intended expressly to be only for pedagogical purposes toaid the reader in understanding the principles of the proposed methodsand systems and the concepts contributed by the inventors to furtheringthe art, and are to be construed as being without limitation to suchspecifically recited examples and conditions. Moreover, all statementsherein reciting principles, aspects, and embodiments of the invention,as well as specific examples thereof, are intended to encompassequivalents thereof.

Finally, it should be noted that any block diagrams herein representconceptual views of illustrative circuitry embodying the principles ofthe invention. Similarly, it will be appreciated that any flow charts,flow diagrams, state transition diagrams, pseudo code, and the likerepresent various processes which may be substantially represented incomputer readable medium and so executed by a computer or processor,whether or not such computer or processor is explicitly shown.

-   -   The functions of the various elements shown in the figures may        be provided through the use of dedicated hardware as well as        hardware capable of executing software in association with        appropriate software. When provided by a processor, the        functions may be provided by a single dedicated processor, by a        single shared processor, or by a plurality of individual        processors, some of which may be shared. Moreover, the explicit        use of the term “processor” or “computer” should not be        construed to refer exclusively to hardware capable of executing        software, and may implicitly include, without limitation,        digital signal processor (DSP) hardware, network processor,        application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), field        programmable gate array (FPGA), read-only memory (ROM) for        storing software, random-access memory (RAM), and non-volatile        storage. Other hardware, conventional and/or custom, may also be        included.).

1. A system for providing energy services in an energy grid using acloud environment comprising a distributed server architecture forprocessing computational tasks and a plurality of storage entities forstoring information, the system further comprising: at least one controlentity adapted to receive information from at least one of a pluralityof energy grid elements and to operate the energy grid elements based onoperational policies; and one or more control interfaces coupled withthe energy grid elements, the one or more control interfaces beingadapted to transmit information provided by an energy grid element to acontrol entity and/or the one or more control interfaces being adaptedto receive information from the control entity to operate the energygrid element based on said information; wherein the at least one controlentity comprises a plurality of software modules which are hosted insaid cloud environment and said operational policies are stored instorage entities of said cloud environment to operate the energy gridelements according to said operational policies.
 2. The system accordingto claim 1, wherein the one or more control interfaces provide ageneralized interface adapted to describe the functionality of an energygrid element based on a set of parameters.
 3. The system according toclaim 2, wherein the energy grid elements are grouped according toenergy grid element types and the set of parameters is chosen accordingto said energy grid element type to characterize specific properties ofsaid type of energy grid elements.
 4. The system according to claim 1,wherein the control entity is adapted to receive properties and/orstatus information of the energy grid elements to orchestrate the energygrid elements according to one or more operational properties.
 5. Thesystem according to claim 1, wherein the control entity and the energygrid elements are coupled via a communication network connection.
 6. Thesystem according to claim 1, wherein the cloud environment provides auser interface, the user interface enabling a user to define auser-related operational policy to define the usage of resources of theenergy grid in a customized way.
 7. The system according to claim 6,wherein settings provided via the user interface are stored inuser-related storage areas of the cloud environment.
 8. The systemaccording to claim 4, wherein the operational policies include rules forcontrolling an energy input in or an energy output out of one or moreenergy grid elements.
 9. The system according to claim 1, wherein thecontrol entity is adapted to dynamically aggregate multiple energy gridelements to build at least one virtual energy sub-grid within the energygrid.
 10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the cloud environmentis adapted to provide one or more virtual power plant applications tocontrol at least one virtual energy sub-grid.
 11. The system accordingto claim 1, wherein the control entity is coupled with a cloudenvironment control entity for an exchange of information.
 12. Thesystem according to claim 1, wherein a distribution of computationaltasks within the cloud environment is controlled based on informationprovided by the control entity.
 13. The system according to claim 9,wherein the control entity is adapted to dynamically add an energy gridelement to a virtual energy sub-grid and/or to remove the energy gridelement from the virtual energy sub-grid.
 14. The system according toclaim 5, wherein the control entity comprises means for dynamicallyincluding an energy grid element into the communication network toenable a communication between the energy grid element and the controlentity.
 15. A method for providing energy services in an energy gridusing a cloud environment comprising a distributed server architecturefor processing computational tasks and a plurality of storage entitiesfor storing information, wherein the energy grid comprises a pluralityof energy grid elements, the energy grid elements being coupled with acontrol entity by means of one or more control interfaces, the methodcomprising the steps of: instantiating at least one control entitycomprising a plurality of software modules in said cloud environment byhosting the software modules on the distributed server architecture;storing operational policies in storage entities of said cloudenvironment; and exchanging information between a control entity andenergy grid elements via one or more control interfaces to operate theenergy grid elements according to the stored operational policies.